The Countess – 1918

Amongst the Sinn Feiners elected in Ireland is the Countess Markievitch, who took a leading part in the Dublin rebellion at Easter, 1916.
In spite of her name, the Countess Markievitch is an Irishwoman, being the eldest daughter of the late Sir Henry Gore-Booth, Bart., of Sligo. A sister is Miss Eva Gore-Booth, the poetess. In 1900 she married the Polish count Casimir Dunin de Markievich. The two, the wife being the leader, were in the forefront of the most “advanced” party in the intellectual circles of Dublin. But it was when authority had to be defied that the Countess surpassed herself. Then what denunciations of England came from this gaunt, excited figure! What belabourings of Man! For she was a Suffragette as well as a Sinn-Feiner and was a leader in the suffrage disorders in Dublin. One of her chief swoops into notoriety was in the great strike of 1918, when she was one of the most active supporters of Larkin. For her share in the Easter Rising at Dublin in 1916 she was sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted, and she was subsequently amnestied. Similar treatment was meted out to Professor John MacNeill, the nominal head, or “Chief of staff,” as he styled himself, of the Sinn Fein volunteers, who has also been returned to Parliament, having defeated the Nationalist candidate for the National University of Ireland.